1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to consumer digital versatile disc (DVD) players and optical media. More particularly, the present invention is related to a method and system that overcomes errors due to uncorrectable defects in optical media by downloading portions of a video program corresponding to damaged portions of the media.
2. Description of Related Art
Digital versatile disc (DVD) players, which may be connected to a television set, contained with a portable device having an LCD screen, or included in a computer system having a video display, are in widespread use in households and other locations.
DVD and other optical media tend to become damaged after long periods of use or after exposure to extreme handling or environments. Damage to the physical media compromises the integrity of the information encoded therein. Traditionally, once media is damaged, the DVD player corrects the error using error-correcting encoding. If an uncorrectable error is present, the DVD player notifies the user through the use of an error screen, or by skipping to a section of the media that is undamaged. While these above-described techniques still allow the remaining media to be played, the entire disc content cannot be enjoyed. Damaged media is an inconvenience to the user, especially for members/customers of mail-based DVD rental services. When a disc is scratched, a user will typically request a replacement, and must wait a number of days for it to arrive.
Users of mail-based rental agencies sometimes send back damaged media without complaint. Failure to draw attention to damaged media means that later renters that receive damaged media in circulation will have the same playback issues and suffer the same inconveniences.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a method and system that can play a video program contained on damaged media, even when portions of the video program are unreadable from the media due to uncorrectable errors, such as those caused by physical damage to the media. It would further be desirable to provide a method and system to remove damaged media from rental circulation.